blood and matter poured out, so that it fell in a stream along
the floor. Now he went out of the booth unhalting, and walked so
hard that the messenger could not keep up with him, and so he
goes until he came to the Fifth Court. There he met Grim the
Red, Flosi’s kinsman, and as soon as ever they met, Thorhall
thrust at him with the spear, and smote him on the shield and
clove it in twain, but the spear passed right through him, so
that the point came out between his shoulders. Thorhall cast him
off his spear.
Then Kari Solmund’s son caught sight of that, and said to Asgrim,
“Here, now, is come Thorhall thy son, and has straightway slain
a man, and this is a great shame, if he alone shall have the
heart to avenge the burning.”
“That shall not be,” says Asgrim, “but let us turn on them now.”
Then there was a mighty cry all over the host, and then they
shouted their war-cries.
Flosi and his friends then turned against their foes, and both
sides egged on their men fast.
Kari Solmund’s son turned now thither where Ami Kol’s son and
Hallbjorn the Strong were in front, and as soon as ever Hallbjorn
saw Kari, he made a blow at him, and aimed at his leg, but Kari
leapt up into the air, and Hallbjorn missed him. Kari turned on
Arni Kol’s son and cut at him, and smote him on the shoulder, and
cut asunder the shoulder blade and collarbone, and the blow went
right down into his breast, and Ami fell down dead at once to
earth.
After that he hewed at Hallbjorn and caught him on the shield,
and the blow passed through the shield, and so down and cut off
his great toe. Holmstein hurled a spear at Kari, but he caught
it in the air, and sent it back, and it was a man’s death in
Flosi’s band.
Thorgeir Craggeir came up to where Hallbjorn the Strong was
in front, and Thorgeir made such a spear-thrust at him with his
left hand that Hallbjorn fell before it, and had hard work to get
on his feet again, and turned away from the fight there and then.
Then Thorgeir met Thorwalld Kettle Rumble’s son, and hewed at him
at once with the axe, “the ogress of war,” which Skarphedinn had
owned. Thorwalld threw his shield before him, and Thorgeir hewed
the shield and cleft it from top to bottom, but the upper horn of
the axe made its way into his breast, and passed into his trunk,
and Thorwalld fell and was dead at once.
Now it must be told how Asgrim Ellidagrim’s son, and Thorhall his
son, Hjallti Skeggi’s son, and Gizur the White, made an onslaught
where Flosi and the sons of Sigfus and the other burners were; —
then there was a very hard fight, and the end of it was that they
pressed on so hard, that Flosi and his men gave way before them.
Gudmund the Powerful, and Mord Valgard’s son, and Thorgeir
Craggeir, made their onslaught where the Axefirthers and
Eastfirthers, and the men of Reykdale stood, and there too there
was a very hard fight.
